George Michael Brower » music

Rhythm Game

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:15:53 +0000

Winter '09, Game Design I with Eddo Stern. A sight-reading music game using overhead projection and the Arduino controller to create an immersive interface. Two drums are custom outfitted with piezo sensors to detect a player's input. The game is controlled using custom software written in Processing.

Below are some photographs from play tests. Software is able to rate the musical accuracy of a user's input, and adjusts a "reward spectacle" accordingly. A "combo counter" is responsible for displaying the number of consecutively scored notes. Thanks to Allen Lee.

According to Google, this is the second best reason that I am remarkable (aside from my MySpace). My "art school project" was hailed in the press, and is thus far the sole reason that anyone has ever visited my vimeo profile page.

"One part Donkey Konga, two parts of Toshio Iwai's studio art, and a hint of super clean Swiss design: UCLA game design work shop student George Michael Brower's Rhythm Game I is a little bit retro-rhythm and a little bit future-cool."

— Brandon Boyer, BoingBoing's Offworld

Volley mechanic. One element of the game left unfinished is a "call and response" mechanic. Certain phrases, if completed in their entirety, are "volleyed" to one's opponent, who sits across the playing field. The desired effect is to create a sense of "echo" or musical interaction, deviating from the prevailing linear structure of sight-reading rhythm games.

Hardware. Images of drum rig, and custom housing for the Arduino chip. Conceived of as a modular hub, up to 4 drums can be connected to the chip using standard 1/4" music cables.

Hhhaaeeh~!

admin — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:00:59 +0000

Sound Design I, Prof. Drew Schnurr

No More Lies

admin — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 03:33:19 +0000

I compose music as one half of a lo-fi electronic outfit, George & Jonathan—born from the stuffs of MIDI, ringtones and video game music. George & Jonathan celebrate a hyper-melodic aesthetic of density, sass,
and a masturbatory propensity for the complex.

8bit-collective

admin — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 21:12:17 +0000

The 8bit-collective is a community website dedicated to the sharing of chiptune music. Chiptune musicians repurpose legacy computer hardware, video game consoles and other toys in order to compose original music.

Since the site launched in 2005, interest in modern chip music has exploded. The community has evolved rapidly and so has the boundaries of its content. At the time this was written (2009) the site is home to 9,000+ registered users, and its forums serve as a hub for chip musicians to converse online.

The site was developed with a friend, Jose Torres, in the course of a few rather unpleasant caffeine fueled nights during my junior year of high school. I was responsible for the site’s design, CSS styling as well as the PHP and MySQL development that enabled user interaction and file sharing.